TKO Group Holdings Inc., or simply TKO, is an American conglomerate holding company founded in 2023 and created due to the merger between the Pro Wrestling giant WWE and the Cage fighting promotion UFC.
WWE is one of the oldest existing pro wrestling promotions in the world. It was formed as Capitol Wrestling Promotion in January 1953 and was renamed WWWF, WWF, and finally WWE in 2002. The company is widely believed to be the biggest pro wrestling promotion in the world due to its rich history and sheer popularity across the whole globe. WWE’ Stock went public in 1999 and it has since then traded on the NYSE. It was still majorly owned by Vince McMahon and the rest of the McMahon family.
UFC was founded in 1993. It is a Mixed Martial Arts promotion and the biggest one in the industry. As of 2023, the UFC has organized more than 600 events and is popular worldwide. In 1995, UFC’s founders sold it to Semaphore Group, who sold it to Zuffa in 2001. In 2023, the WWE and Zuffa merged together to form the TKO Group Holdings
Formation of TKO - The WWE-UFC Merger
Vince McMahon stepped down as the Chairman and CEO of the company in mid-2022. He expressed his desire to resume in January 2023. The same month the company hired JPMorgan to handle a possible sale of the company. Among the possible buyers were the Walt Disney Network, Netflix, Amazon and Warner Bros. However, perhaps the suitor with the best claim was the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.
However, the deal with PIF did not go through as WWE had already inked the deal with another buyer. On April 3, 2023, it was announced that WWE and Endeavour had came to an agreement. Endeavour Group is the owner of Zuffa, the company that owns UFC. Endeavour and WWE decided to merge the latter with Zuffa, essentially merging WWE and UFC, the two biggest promotions in the world of combat wrestling.
The resultant company was internally named New Whale Inc before being officially named TKO Group Holdings after Total Knock Out. While WWE and UFC now work under the same banner, they work separately in the same way they used to.
Who owns TKO?
The Endeavour Group owns 51 per cent of TKO while the shareholders of WWE hold the rest 49 per cent in TKO Group Holdings. The merger of WWE and UFC valued WWE at $9.1 Billion, which is the value of WWE’s share in TKO.
Since the merger, it has been the first time that WWE has not been majorly owned by a McMahon. Nonetheless, McMahon was the single largest shareholder of WWE and is now the single largest individual shareholder of TKO Group Holdings. McMahon currently owns about 34 per cent of TKO.
FAQs
51 per cent of TKO is held by Endeavour while the rest 49 is owned by the shareholders of WWE.
No, WWE is owned by TKO Group and it will continue to work under the banner of WWE.
While changes in WWE may be inevitable, it is believed that they may be minimal as TKO has stated its intention of not interfering with the flow of both WWE and UFC.
UFC’s parent company Endeavour merged UFC with WWE and the two giant promotions now work under the same banner - TKO Group Holdings.
